Leisure consultations

During the development stage of the project, we carried out a series of public consultations on the Olympia regeneration project, including public meetings and drop in events.

Play space

We held an information and engagement day at Olympia Community Centre on Wednesday 17 September 2014 on the proposals for a new play space. This will be part of a future stage of development.

The new play park will be near the entrance to the new facility at Olympia Drive. We want this space to be accessible and attractive to all ages, with a range of play equipment for children aged 12 or under, and a target zone for older children, young people and group activities.

The overall response to the designs was positive and the proposal was widely welcomed. We noted all your comments and suggestions and took them on board during the next stage of design. Here are some of your suggestions.

Your comments

Our response

The pedestrian gate is being relocated. We're concerned about access management of the gate on match days.

We'll continue to manage the pedestrian access gate. We will work with the IFA to address match day concerns.

There's not enough provision for very young children.

We have added more equipment suitable for very young children.

The kick about area needs to be more fun to hold the attention of young people.

We have added a second goal target to the kickabout area.

Kickabout area should be further away from the houses.

We have changed our plans to move the kickabout area to the other side of the play space, further away from the houses.

Dog prevention is a priority.

The playground is fenced in and features self closing gates which will help to keep kids in safe and keep dogs out.

First consultation on Olympia

In February 2013, residents and centre users told us that they wanted to see any new facility as part of the Windsor Park stadium, so our proposals are based around building a centre at its west stand.

In September 2013, we held public information sessions with local residents, centre users, businesses and other groups to give updates on our progress.

You may have received a leaflet through your door if you live close by, or seen our article in City Matters. Displays and information were also provided inside Olympia Leisure Centre and staff members have continued to add value by contributing their thoughts and ideas on the project.

Overall, response from you has been positive. We have listened to all of the feedback and have addressed any concerns.

Feedback

Your comments

Our response

Some of you voiced concerns about the future provision of community activities because the current plan does not include a dedicated community centre.

We’re making sure that the new facility at Windsor will have flexible space inside, which will be available to book for community programmes. We will also make sure to involve the local residents when designing the programme of activities provided here.

Some of you didn’t like the idea of having small sided caged pitches for skills development and older people’s football and are concerned about sharing a publically available pitch with an intermediate league club.

We have changed the design so that we can use the pitch at full size or as smaller sized pitches.

Some of you are worried about losing services while a new centre is built.

This is not a huge concern as we are going to keep the existing centre open while we build the new one.

Many of you asked that we include an increased pool provision.

We have looked at several combinations and we think our latest design of a main pool, with a movable floor cover, and an additional teaching pool will improve our offer in a balanced way for all our users.